Coral Cross is Here to Help

4.21.2009

During the coming weeks, the Coral Cross will act as the narrator for an island-wide pandemic flu "playable scenario" set in 2012. You are invited to be a collaborator. While the scenario is fictional, the threat of pandemic flu crisis -- like the Spanish Flu of 1918 -- is very real. And in Coral Cross, that crisis is upon us.

What would you do to survive?

Join your fellow islanders in exploring the reality of a deadly, persistent influenza. Identify your personal risk and protect your community. Improve your chances of survival -- before it becomes a matter of life or death.

Duration of scenario: 7 daysAnticipated total "gameplay": 1-10 hours

What's next?

To participate, just visit coralcross.org to begin the registration process.

Because of intense subject matter, Coral Cross might not be suitable for players under 14 years of age.

Into heavy pipetting?

Pipetting all those well-plates, baby, sends your thumbs into overdriveAnd spending long nights in the lab makes it hard for your love to thrive

What you need is automation, girl, something easy as 1 2 3So put down that pipette, honey, I got something that will set you free

And itâ€™s called epMotion (whisper: â€�cause you deserve something really great)Girl you need epMotion (whisper: yeah girl itâ€™s time to automate) Itâ€™s got to be epMotion (whisper: no more pipetting late at night)Only for you epMotion (whisper: girl this time we got it right)

And itâ€™s called epMotion (whisper: â€�cause you deserve something really great)Girl you need epMotion (whisper: yeah girl itâ€™s time to automate) Itâ€™s got to be epMotion (whisper: no more pipetting late at night)Only for you epMotion (whisper: girl this time we got it right)

Tender Whispers

7.17.2008

Fresh Meat is a supplement to the Rivet St. Louis recruitment efforts. The microsite will be a point of entry for young, curious creative types yearning for a workplace of gestalt and cannibalism, and will find its way to various online hiring hangouts. The movie(s) will have a home on YouTube, too, and hopefully a life of their own. (More episodes will be up soon, plus other treats as time permits, so keep those lids peeled and ponchos at the ready.)

This is a quiet beta launch for us to do a bit of fine-tuning and momentum-gathering. Imperfections are glaring, but please poke around, enjoy, and drop me a line with any bugs / questions / comments.

Nice Cannes.

4.16.2008

Getty images is holding a contest, the winner of which will get a 2 person, 5 day, 4 night trip to Cannes during the Lions. All you have to do is use video, still footage and/or music from Getty to create a message or idea that would make a difference in the world.

Damn the Luck!

4.10.2008

Scene: A line of troops are seen boarding a cargo plane. As we see several troops enter the plane, A higher ranking officer is directing the troops through the plane entrance. After all-but-one solider passes thru, the higher ranking officer stops the line. "Hold-on, pal". You see the ranking officer receive some-sort of message from his headset. Listening... Listening. He then tells the last remaining solider in line, "Sorry, but Bush just sent in new orders. Troop withdrawal has been putt on hold. You're going to have to go back." "What!" says the solider. "But, what about the other guys on the plane." "Sorry, they're grandfathered in", says the ranking officer. Solider replies, "I can't believe my luck." The solider turns around to head back to camp when a sniper fires a head-shot and kills him instantly. Scene.

Virgle

4.01.2008

"An invitation:

Earth has issues, and it's time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars."

We're Entering

3.31.2008

WHAT IS WEBBY-IN-MOTION?

Webby-in-Motion is a special collaborative contest presented by Adobe and The Webby Awards where we ask motion designers, illustrators, animators and other talented creative minds to design a 20-second category introduction animation/video for The Webby Awards Gala in NYC on June 10, 2008. Since we know that that sort of thing can often be time-consuming, creatively draining, mind-numbing, frustrating and sometimes even dangerous, we offer the grand-prize winner this sweet foursome:

* VIP trip for two to the star-studded Webby Awards in New York City * $10,000 cash * AdobeÂ® Creative SuiteÂ® 3 Master Collection * Prize package from Stash, including an interview on Feed

work for sale

2.15.2008

Another 48 Hours

"The 48 Hour Film Project will return to St. Louis from June 6th to June 8th, 2008. Filmmakers from all over the St. Louis area will compete to see who can make the best short film in only 48 hours. The winning film will go up against films from around the world for the title "Best 48 Hour Film of 2008".

Shut up, already.

1.08.2008

Would love to see this implemented on lounge tables, bedroom ceilings, airport floors and personal conversation wrist watches:

"...real-time data visualization projected on a physical table that aims to augment the developing verbal dialog by displaying a representation of conversation to all people present. the visual graph on the table demonstrates turn-taking, domination, interruption & activity throughout a conversation."

You suck and I want to be a part of it.

1.04.2008

You are a cross-discipline creative communicator with a penchant for conversation. Your fundamental abilities of copywriting and design result in meaningful, compelling messages. Your exposure to theory and method populates a metaphysical Rolodex of possible executions. Your nuanced appreciation of audience bends in your favor the odds of impact.

You consider timeliness a qualitative metric. You believe you can make the world a better place and make money at the same time. You refuse to burn out. You find more value in mistakes than in inaction. You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear, but you can make a saddle blanket for a hamster. What you lack in experience you make up for in tenacity. You suffer from a chronic case of giving a damn. You are your toughest critic.

A STL Loop-based marketing boutique wants you. Yes you.

You, send us a resume and samples.

He responded:

Hello,

I am interested in applying for the position as advertised on Craigslist. I am quite an original creative person, which is more than I can say for the cliche filled advertisement your company posted. No wonder you are looking for creativity. If you want some creative, humorous work please contact me. If you want to continue with the same cliche filled work that is evident in your Craigslist post, interview the next guy.

Saaaaanta Claaaaaaus

12.24.2007

Apropos of Nothing

I just had a thought and no where to put it. Forgive me if this ain't the most appropriate place. Here's the thought:

Everything is reducible to politics. Even metaphysics. I know, this already seems obnoxious. But just give me a minute. Why does it matter whether I think the answer to life, the universe and everything is best described by the Tao Te Ching, Bible, Qur'an, BhagavadBita, qumran scrolls, Kant, Hegel, Quine, al-Wahhab, Ken Wilber, Stephen Hawking, or Douglas Adams? It matters because it effects my behavior. We all ultimately want other people to do what we want them to do. At the risk of employing Geddy-Lee-esque philosophy, even if all you want is for others to leave you alone, you're still making a political statement. Every question is, at bottom, a question of power. Everything is political.

Poke holes. There is a second thought that is pursuant to this first thought, so I wonder if it stands up to scrutiny. What is human that is apolitical? I have what seem to me solid arguments to respond to anything I've been able to put up to this question. I'm sure y'all can do better.

Annual Rhythmic Ceremony

12.04.2007

[13:30] Drinkspiller: A radio station where all the broadcasts come from 18 minutes in the future. Only one apartment receives the signal.[13:31] bizzleburp: huh?[13:31] Drinkspiller: that's all i got so far[13:31] bizzleburp: sign me up[13:31] Drinkspiller: seems like there is a short in there somewhere[13:33] bizzleburp: well i'm sure you can get plutonium on every street corner in 1985[13:34] Drinkspiller: ROFL!!![13:35] bizzleburp: Radio Of Future Lesbians[13:35] Drinkspiller: this is how brilliant ideas develop[13:36] Drinkspiller: unfortunately, it's how shitty ones develop too.[13:36] bizzleburp: BINGO![13:54] tokyocrunch: looks like another artfully lazy RL post to me!

Video Comments

11.18.2007

Every morning I do a few "morning paper" things that have become routine. I'm a huge fan of google reader which gets me filtered easy to read rss feeds. Another item is checking some crap aggregates (break, digg, etc.) to wade through the sewage to find 15 seconds of amusement.

I thought of a media player concept that focuses around the crap aggregates. It would be similar to Diggnation (any revision 3 fans out there?) Diggnation is hosted by Kevin Rose and they talk about all the top stories on digg. Not a huge fan of the show, but I like the concept of commenting on the news of the day. What if we put together a similar web-culture/tech show and dropped links into the video feed? It could work like this;

Dudes talking about technology or silly web culture on a couch w/ beers a la Diggnation.

As stories are brought up a giant title of the story fills the screen for a couple seconds.

The title is actually a hyperlink, that when clicked pauses the player and opens the story link in a new window.

When the user is done viewing "Flaming Shot Goes Wrong", they can continue to watch clever comments on the link or skip ahead to the next story.

This wouldn't really work virally as you need the FLV player w/ actionscript cue points for navigation and links. This whole concept really spawned from coming up with clever ways to bring on the story links, simulated grenade toss, etc.